Accreditation of Branches and Representative Offices in Russia - New Procedure to Come

starting from 1 January 2015 an absolutely new procedure for accreditation of branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities and a procedure of personal accreditation of foreign employees shall be introduced.
 
Accreditation of branches and representative offices is to be carried out by an official body, authorized by the Government of the Russian Federation. It is now assumed that these functions will be delegated to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation will not be in charge of issuance of permits for establishing representative offices and branches of foreign legal entities; it keeps the powers of personal accreditation and visa support for employees of foreign legal entities.
 
New legislative provisions apply to:
 

1. representative offices and branches that are accredited and carry out their activities on the territory of the Russian Federation:
    
   Prior to 1 April 2015, representative offices and branches having permits for their establishment that do not expire prior to 1 April 2015 are obliged to provide information for registration with the state register. In case of failure to fulfill this requirement, accreditation of such representative offices and branches will be terminated. The procedure, notification forms, scope of information have not been established yet.
   
   In case notification requirements are observed, representative offices and branches are to be considered accredited till the expiry of previously issued permits.
    
2. newly established representative offices and branches of foreign legal entities:
    
   Requirements regarding procedure, terms of accreditation of representative offices and branches are being introduced. The application for accreditation is to be submitted within 12 months from the date of adopting a decision on establishment of a representative office or a branch. Accreditation is to be performed by an authorized body within 25 business days from the date of submitting necessary documents.

 
The law stipulates new grounds for termination of accreditation of representative offices and branches in accordance with a decision of a body performing accreditation. In particular, accreditation of a representative office or a branch ceases to be effective if the following circumstances are simultaneously present:
 

1. a representative office or a branch of a foreign legal entity has not submitted reporting documents provided by the tax laws of Russia within the last 12 months;
    
2. a representative office or an branch is not available at the address indicated in the register;
    
3. a representative office or an branch has not carried out any transactions on at least one bank account that is open on the territory of the Russian Federation within the last 12 months.